“The Abortion Monologues was a perfect fit for the Alumnae Theatre, a women's theatre group whose mandate includes producing plays that make people think, feature strong roles for women - and are written by Canadian playwrights. From the moment we discovered Jane's beautiful play, to the presentation of our staged reading less than two months later, the feeling of excitement just grew and grew. A group of very talented actors and technicians joined together to bring it to fruition as a fund raiser for Planned Parenthood and Choice in Health. We timed the event to coincide with the G20 Summit in Toronto and our sold-out audience received it very enthusiastically. All felt honoured and grateful to be part of this wonderful expression of love and support for women and our right to choose. Thank you Jane!”
— Dinah Watts on behalf of the Alumnae Theatre
WHAT'S NEW
Two Staged Readings in response to the G8 in June 2010
June 20, 2010, 8:00 pm
Toronto
Alumnae Theatre
70 Berkeley Street
Toronto, ON M5A 2W6
Tickets $20
Available through www.totix.ca or reservations@alumnaetheatre.com or for more information call 416-364-4170
www.alumnaetheatre.com
Proceeds to support Planned Parenthood and Choice In Health
June 27, 2010 7:30 pm
Ottawa
The First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa
30 Cleary Avenue
Ottawa, Ontario
Tickets $20 at the door (cash only)
General Admission
Proceeds to support Planned Parenthood Ottawa
For more information call PPO 613-226-3234
For a map and directions click here.
Please don't call the First Unitarian Church for tickets. They are not selling them. Door opens at 7:00 pm.
MORE MEDIA
From the University of Texas Brownsville Production, April 26, 2010
Abortion, final ‘Difficult Dialogue' in Ford Foundation grant
"By LAURA TILLMAN, The Brownsville Herald
When it comes to difficult conversations, Liza Dimas says abortion is one of the toughest. Though Dimas is directing a play entitled "The Abortion Monologues," which will be presented at UTB-TSC this evening at 7:30 p.m., she still hasn’t decided whether or not she will invite her mother.
"She’ll be like, ‘You’re directing what?’" Dimas said, as she sat with two of the actors in the play and her co-director, Professor John Cook.
Dimas is the event organizer for the Ford Foundation’s Difficult Dialogue Initiative at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, a series that has asked the community to engage in tough conversations about divisive topics.
Cook is hoping that Brownsville residents who don’t necessarily support the right to have an abortion, like Dimas’s mother, will come to the play, thereby fulfilling the mission of the Difficult Dialogues grant. The Ford Foundation has asked campuses like UTB-TSC to create a space where people of differing opinions on issues like immigration, religion and gender can come together for civil conversations in an otherwise increasingly polarized political landscape.
"I really think we have accomplished something with these dialogues," said Cook, who began working on these events more than three years ago. "People who have lived in the Valley a long time tell me that ten years ago, no one would have had a symposium on gay and lesbian issues, for example."
While "The Abortion Monologues" will mark the last event funded through the Ford Foundation grant, Cook says that UTB-TSC will continue to put on Difficult Dialogue events. The Free Speech Ally, for example, challenges commonly held beliefs with demonstrations and conversation.
Though it’s tempting to say that many in Brownsville are strangers to protest, the Difficult Dialogue series has proven that assumption false, by using radical imagery to force confrontation. In one demonstration, for example, Dimas asked several girls to dress up in provocative outfits and hold signs, asking passersby whether they thought the girls "deserved" to be raped for dressing this way. In another, students with pro-choice posters stood with taped mouths, the word "live" written on their lips.
During tonight’s play, student Stephanie Lucas will be performing two monologues. In the first she will portray a married woman who has an abortion after deciding that she won’t be able to care for her sick husband if she has a child. In the second she will play a young woman who finds out she is pregnant, only to have her boyfriend break up with her to marry someone else. It is unclear in the play whether the second woman chooses to have an abortion or not.
Lucas says she was adamantly against abortion before participating in the play. Now, she says, she has realized all of the very real situations in which women find themselves.
"Sometimes abortion is the only answer," Lucas said. "If I had a 13-year-old daughter who was raped, I don’t think she should have that child."
Lucas hopes that her boyfriend’s mother, who she tried to discuss the play with, will come and see for herself. Then, maybe they could have the kind of difficult conversation UTB-TSC has spent the last few years trying to promote.
"The Abortion Monologues" will be held today at 7:30 p.m. in the Gran Salon, in the UTB-TSC Student Union. The play is free and open to the public.
Two Staged Readings in response to the G8 in June 2010
June 20, 2010, 8:00 pm
Toronto
Alumnae Theatre
70 Berkeley Street
Toronto, ON M5A 2W6
Tickets $20
Available through www.totix.ca or reservations@alumnaetheatre.com or for more information call 416-364-4170
www.alumnaetheatre.com
Proceeds to support Planned Parenthood and Choice In Health
June 27, 2010 7:30 pm
Ottawa
The First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa
30 Cleary Avenue
Ottawa, Ontario
Tickets $20 at the door (cash only)
General Admission
Proceeds to support Planned Parenthood Ottawa
For more information call PPO 613-226-3234
For a map and directions click here.
Please don't call the First Unitarian Church for tickets. They are not selling them. Door opens at 7:00 pm.
MORE MEDIA
From the University of Texas Brownsville Production, April 26, 2010
Abortion, final ‘Difficult Dialogue' in Ford Foundation grant
"By LAURA TILLMAN, The Brownsville Herald
When it comes to difficult conversations, Liza Dimas says abortion is one of the toughest. Though Dimas is directing a play entitled "The Abortion Monologues," which will be presented at UTB-TSC this evening at 7:30 p.m., she still hasn’t decided whether or not she will invite her mother.
"She’ll be like, ‘You’re directing what?’" Dimas said, as she sat with two of the actors in the play and her co-director, Professor John Cook.
Dimas is the event organizer for the Ford Foundation’s Difficult Dialogue Initiative at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, a series that has asked the community to engage in tough conversations about divisive topics.
Cook is hoping that Brownsville residents who don’t necessarily support the right to have an abortion, like Dimas’s mother, will come to the play, thereby fulfilling the mission of the Difficult Dialogues grant. The Ford Foundation has asked campuses like UTB-TSC to create a space where people of differing opinions on issues like immigration, religion and gender can come together for civil conversations in an otherwise increasingly polarized political landscape.
"I really think we have accomplished something with these dialogues," said Cook, who began working on these events more than three years ago. "People who have lived in the Valley a long time tell me that ten years ago, no one would have had a symposium on gay and lesbian issues, for example."
While "The Abortion Monologues" will mark the last event funded through the Ford Foundation grant, Cook says that UTB-TSC will continue to put on Difficult Dialogue events. The Free Speech Ally, for example, challenges commonly held beliefs with demonstrations and conversation.
Though it’s tempting to say that many in Brownsville are strangers to protest, the Difficult Dialogue series has proven that assumption false, by using radical imagery to force confrontation. In one demonstration, for example, Dimas asked several girls to dress up in provocative outfits and hold signs, asking passersby whether they thought the girls "deserved" to be raped for dressing this way. In another, students with pro-choice posters stood with taped mouths, the word "live" written on their lips.
During tonight’s play, student Stephanie Lucas will be performing two monologues. In the first she will portray a married woman who has an abortion after deciding that she won’t be able to care for her sick husband if she has a child. In the second she will play a young woman who finds out she is pregnant, only to have her boyfriend break up with her to marry someone else. It is unclear in the play whether the second woman chooses to have an abortion or not.
Lucas says she was adamantly against abortion before participating in the play. Now, she says, she has realized all of the very real situations in which women find themselves.
"Sometimes abortion is the only answer," Lucas said. "If I had a 13-year-old daughter who was raped, I don’t think she should have that child."
Lucas hopes that her boyfriend’s mother, who she tried to discuss the play with, will come and see for herself. Then, maybe they could have the kind of difficult conversation UTB-TSC has spent the last few years trying to promote.
"The Abortion Monologues" will be held today at 7:30 p.m. in the Gran Salon, in the UTB-TSC Student Union. The play is free and open to the public.